JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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- Translator
- ZAIHON, Inc. (日本財務翻訳株式会社), Tokyo
- Salary: ¥6.0M / Year Negotiable
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- Full-time English Teacher - Osaka
- Epion English Language Schools, Osaka
- Salary: ¥200,000 ~ ¥250,000 / Month Depending on your ability and experience
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- Part-time English Teacher - Osaka
- Epion English Language Schools, Osaka
- Salary: ¥10,000 ~ ¥15,000 / Day Depending on how many days a week are worked
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kirakira25
I agree with you ThonThaddeo - Ghirardelli
s chocolate is a FAR superior present! Thats exactly what I was trying to do - acknowledge and respect the gift-giving culture with a more modern and westernised twist to it. But it seems my mistake - crappy towels, preferrably with dodgy flowery patterns or cute teddy bears on them are the way to go.For future reference though, anyone with kids - I bought some big packs of funky pencils with erasers from Costco for my daughter to give out as Sayonara presents to her classmates, and Yoroshiku presents to her new classmates. We attached a little note to each one for the new class, giving her name, age, family members and favourite food/animal/colour. They went down a TREAT! My daughter is immediately the most popular kid in school, and for days afterwards I was getting passed little notes through the teachers from the mums saying thank you and when I finally had my first PTA meeting at the new place only last week I was the star of the show!
3000 yen for 90 pencils and we have bought the loyalty of the whole school year and neighbourhood! Bargain!
Posted in: Navigating the intricacies of Japan’s gift-giving protocol
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kirakira25
We have just moved house and rather than the traditionl snacks that get shoved in a cupboard and dumped when they are past their sell-by date, I thought I would be clever and get beautiful sets of glass-cup scented candles and give them to the neighbours with a little introductory note. Nice, I thought.
But my first mistake apparently was that Japanese associate candles with death - even spiced apple, ocean breeze and cool vanilla ones. My second was assuming our neighbours would even be remotely interested in getting to know us. The guy next door studiously ignored his doorbell until we finally bumped into them going into their place-it was awkward to say the least-and virtually forced the present on them.
Posted in: Navigating the intricacies of Japan’s gift-giving protocol
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kirakira25
I don
t think its a question of putting a figure on things necessarily, but a question of proportion. When people are losing their jobs and getting salary cuts left right and centre because the company isnt doing well, to find that the top guys are still making a mint and getting bonuses and pay rises doesnt sit well at all. No wonder Keidanren are so against making that information public. The Japanese still seem to be as deluded about their "equal" society as they are about the length of their colons!Article Unavailable
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kirakira25
I think the article is a slight generalisation but it makes many valid points and I have to agree with most of what was said. And as Tkoind says - it has nothing to do with wanting to "westernise" Japan, but everything to do with wanting Japan to stand up and be a major world leader. This cannot happen while people aren`t prepared to stick their necks out and make some tough decisions.
The country and big business in general is run by a bunch of guys who have been very comfortable with and/or made a lot of money out of the status quo - the seniority ladder regardless of how good you are at your job, the amakudari system, etc etc.
The guys coming up from underneath can
t wait for it to be their turn. Change and leadership takes effort - and I just feel a collective national apathy here. Its like by the time they leave school and start work they are already exhausted! Just sit on the escalator and your turn will come.On a personal level - as things stand at the moment I will not be putting my kids through the system from junior high onwards, and quite honestly if the rest of the country want to follow like sheep, fine by us - less competition for the ones who will stand out in the future. My husband has made his career out of being different - he dared to do it and it paid off.
Japlan and Tkoind for prime minister(s) I say!
Posted in: Japan and its standardized test-based education system
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kirakira25
So did I read this right - they only accept UNIQLO used items? If so, not quite as philanthropic as the article makes out.
Posted in: Uniqlo puts old clothes to good use
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kirakira25
Ah, well - that explains it then ;) !!! Did they say anything about paternal IQ?! There`s a LOT of things I would like to explain away using THAT one!!!
So far the only way he dazzles us is by leaping off walls
Posted in: Local experts help foreign women take the pain out of labor
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kirakira25
Why stop at apartments? I
ve been refused a credit card for years even though my husband is Japanese. Weve been asked to see our passports and marriage cert at a ryokan before. It can make life here very difficult when I can`t even get a credit card, and when I use my husbands I am often made to feel like a criminal. I must just have that kind of face!Posted in: Why Japanese property managers are so strict on renting apartments
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kirakira25
Good luck with your number 2! (Baby, I mean!!!) My friend is still breastfeeding her 2 1/2 year old but you know - I wouldn
t so much call it "feeding" as "comforting". I am feeling guilty right now because I have heard breastfeeding makes kids more intelligent (?). I breastfed my first and she is doing really well at school. I didnt breastfeed my second and its early days yet but he is showing all the signs of being a classic dumb-ass! Poor kid! Thank god for him he is good-looking cos he aint gonna get anywhere with his brain!Posted in: Local experts help foreign women take the pain out of labor
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kirakira25
And when you take a Japanese friend to translate everything for you, guarantors and key money, an employment letter, and they STILL say no foreigners.....?
Posted in: Why Japanese property managers are so strict on renting apartments
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kirakira25
If we get reincarnated I vote to come back as a woman too, but this time do I get to choose whose body I am in???!
Posted in: Local experts help foreign women take the pain out of labor
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kirakira25
and you don`t think you suffered??! You are one tough cookie Cleo!
I agree that motherhood is a great thing (although I am writing that with gritted teth right now after being up every 2 hours with my 6 MONTH OLD!!!) but I wouldn
t say dont knock it till youve tried it - what if you try it and then decide its not for you???! I would say imagine a life ahead of you with no children ever, and a life with children, and if you decide that no kids is what you want - good for you. Be happy. I love mine but my God, I can see it is not for everyone and there are moments when....OK, not gonna go there!Let`s just say it is no coincidence to me that I spotted the first grey hairs and my skin seemed to fall off my face right around the time my first son reached toddlerhood!
Posted in: Local experts help foreign women take the pain out of labor
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kirakira25
Good one Tessa - hamsters need love too - just ask Richard Gere! Eeeeuuuww! Or was that a gerbil?
Think we have all just invented a new form of contraception for Japan - this thread!
Cleo if you suffered that much the first time around and then had another go then hats off to you - that must have been terrible! I had a fissure and a few cracks and was horrendously sore, but I didn`t even bleed, yet the pain was awful in the beginning.
I used to think of the La Leche League as a bunch of breastfeeding nazi
s. Now Im thinking of training to be one so I can offer the kind of support and help I wish I had been given.Posted in: Local experts help foreign women take the pain out of labor
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kirakira25
You are looking well over a million when you include an epidural.
Posted in: Local experts help foreign women take the pain out of labor
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kirakira25
Mine is 6 months and still not sleeping midnight to 5am - gggrrrrr! Breast is DEFINITELY easier in terms of carting everything around - I agree with that. It does make it difficult to ever have a night off though, which is one reason why I mixed. I also quite simply didn`t have enough milk this time around - with 2 others to look after and no help you get really tired and my 3rd is a big lad.
Enjoy your new baby - they just get big so fast don`t they?
Posted in: Local experts help foreign women take the pain out of labor
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kirakira25
I don
t know how many prayer breaks they are taking or how long for, but I have to admit that the guy who answered back has a point. Any time of the day when I walk past an office building in my area there are hordes standing around smoking. Ditto every time I enter a starbucks on a weekday afternoon and find salarymen sleeping in there. Its no wonder to me sometimes that everyone has to work 18 hour days...if you actually count the number of productive hours it`s probably not so different to the rest of the developed world!Posted in: Reconciling foreign workers' prayer breaks with production deadlines
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kirakira25
oh Canukle - don`t be too envious - I know from experience this is only a temporary state of affairs (unless I continue feeding him till high school!)
He giveth, and he absolutely taketh away again! But I always say if God never wanted us to have boob jobs he wouldn`t have given us those clever souls who dreamed up the idea in the first place!
I can tell you with absolute certainty that second time round will not be a fraction as bad for several reasons - a) it always seems to be the case, with me and everyone I have ever spoken to about it b) you know much more what to expect and what you are doing c) therefore YOU can tell THEM what to do for YOU with more confidence!
Those specialty clinics that cater to foreigners I have actually heard pretty mixed reports from. In my experience it really doesn
t matter where you are, if you have a good doctor with whom you have a good rapport you will be fine. However, I dont know how much choice of doctors you have outside the cities.The first time is terrifying (depending on the circumstances.) The second time is a breeze in comparison. The 3rd time is a wild card and the 4th...well, I ain
t gointhere but I hear you skip from conception straight through to delivery without a squeak! Ill take any mum of 4s word for it cos like I said - the KK baby factory is closed!Posted in: Local experts help foreign women take the pain out of labor
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kirakira25
Note to self - don`t let my kids go on a summer camp trip here.
Posted in: Woman drowns while trying to rescue child at Chiba beach
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kirakira25
I was in south africa for the rugby world cup in 95 and believe me - it should be a crime to drown out those amazing african voices chanting and singing. I still get goosebumps now at the memory of it.
Posted in: Constant drone of vuvuzelas killing World Cup atmosphere
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kirakira25
So many interesting points of view on here - from seasoned mothers, new mothers, non-mothers and even the guys(!) and I have really enjoyed reading everyones opinions - wow! Did I just say that out loud??!
I agree with what pretty much everyone is saying! Cleo - BIG congrats on the grandchild! I seriously believe not enough encouragement, help and support is given to breastfeeding here - it was hell in the early days and I really hope your daughter is pushing through the tough bit OK because it really DOES get better - if you can tough it out to the other side after about 2 months.
I can
t speak for overseas as I have never had a child there but three times I sat through the formula milk sales pitch and quite honestly I can see the pluses and minuses on both sides. I "mixed" with all mine. But one thing people never really consider a major plus for breastfeeding is...you should SEE these babies! People here seem SO friendly these days...;) ! Seriously! A plus for me, a plus for the takyubin delivery guy - everyones happy! (except hubby if he reads this but I digress...!)Zenny11 - for a man (boo! hiss!) quite an insightful comment - listen to your body. It is ABSOLUTELY true. When you give in to things your body tells you exactly what to do (or in my 3rd labour what NOT to do as the cord was wrapped twice round the poor little guys neck and pushing would have strangled him). I think we get so wrapped up in fear and focusing on what the books say we should do we forget that our uteruses (uteri??!) are pretty smart and can be left to do the job unaided in many cases.
Options and education are out there - but for foreigners here, or at least those who don
t speak Japanese well they can be expensive. I dont know how much the woman in the article charges for the hypnosis course, but many of us delivering here are not on ex-pat salaries with expense accounts.And I also agree with tmarie - choice is the most important thing, because as I think I said before every body, and every birth is unique and what one may tolerate another may not. There is no standard measure for pain because it is such a subjective thing.
Frungy - thanks for the updated stats - good to know things have improved here.
I really hope no-one here is put off having children because of the pain. It is the most minor possible reason not to have children! I was NEVER a kiddie kind of person before having mine - I was SO focused on my career and my lifestyle. And even now they are here I would be lying if I said I devoted every minute of my life to them. It is just not who I am and for me, balance is key - KK the mum and KK the wild child still exist symbiotically! Everyone is different and you just need to find what works for you, but please - never be put off having children for the fear of labour pain - it is over so quickly (well, after 36 hours or so max!) and they ARE worth it. No, really, they are!!!
Posted in: Local experts help foreign women take the pain out of labor
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kirakira25
Ah, Cleo. I didn`t know that was the real reason. I was told by non-medical people the reason I gave so I assumed that was the reason. Yes, Japanese baths are very different to back home and I for one love them! Hate my rubbishy British bath whenever I go home now!
Posted in: Local experts help foreign women take the pain out of labor